Investing in Working Lands for Birds, Habitat, and Rural Communities

Earlier this month, the voices of farmers and ranchers, those that steward America’s working lands, echoed by way of the halls of Congress. Eight people from Audubon’s Conservation Ranching and Conservation Forage packages traveled to Washington, DC, for our first-ever Capitol Hill fly-in centered solely on the Farm Invoice. Whereas Audubon has lengthy championed insurance policies benefiting birds and rural communities, this second requires continued funding in working lands as an important answer for birds, habitat, and other people. 

At Audubon, we all know coverage is crucial for birds, however individuals carry these insurance policies to life.  

“Non-public landowners are those who carry the ‘alphabet soup’ of voluntary conservation packages to life,” I advised attendees at a packed Congressional briefing. They take packages with acronyms like RCPP, EQIP, ACEP, and CRP and switch them into lively conservation. Partnering hand-in-glove with the likes of Frates Seeligson, a 4th-generation rancher whose child footwear have been cowboy boots, on the Pajarito Ranch in south Texas is how wildlife habitat occurs. 

And it’s urgently wanted. In line with the 2025 State of the Birds report, grassland birds have declined by 43 p.c within the final 50 years—the steepest inhabitants drop of any fowl habitat group in North America. Species just like the Bobolink have misplaced greater than half their populations. With out motion, some might disappear altogether. These declines mirror the widespread conversion and degradation of grasslands—a lot of it privately owned and managed. 

Because of this the Farm Invoice issues for birds. With over half of the U.S. land used for agriculture, working lands are amongst our greatest hopes for large-scale conservation. The Farm Invoice is the nation’s largest supply of funding for voluntary conservation on personal lands, providing technical and monetary help to enhance soil well being, water high quality, habitat, carbon storage, and long-term land productiveness. The investments it gives assist farmers and ranchers undertake voluntary conservation practices that assist birds whereas retaining their operations viable. 

To highlight these impacts, we welcomed ranchers from California, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas to Washington, DC. Over three days, they met with 38 congressional workplaces throughout 10 states. Additionally they headlined a Hill briefing filled with Hill employees, company leaders, and conservation companions. 

These landowners represented a strong and unified message: conservation works, and the Farm Invoice makes it attainable and worthwhile to proceed their heritage of ranching on their land.

“Grassland loss has accelerated, and the Nice Plains alone is dropping 1 to 2 million acres of grassland every year,” stated Eric Perner, who manages the Double P Ranch and his regenerative meat model, REP Provisions, in Oklahoma. “At this price, our nation’s grazing lands—and the meals safety, rural livelihoods, and ecosystem providers they supply—might vanish inside only a few generations. This isn’t only a land challenge. It’s a human well being, meals safety, financial resilience, and biodiversity disaster challenge.” 

Perner’s phrases communicate to what’s at stake.  Farm Invoice packages assist maintain the land viable for individuals and wildlife alike. 

Colton Jones, who runs Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch and the Wild Thought Buffalo Co. along with his spouse Jilian in western South Dakota, emphasised the public-private partnership that defines these efforts. “We’re going to do conservation anyway,” he stated in the course of the briefing, “however these packages make it a lot simpler to scale our impression.”  

These landowners carry their very own {dollars} and sweat fairness to the desk, and the general public receives important environmental payoff: rooted soil, clear water, and wildlife–together with ample wings over these working lands. 

That’s why Audubon is urging Congress to prioritize birds and the working lands they depend upon within the subsequent Farm Invoice. We’re advocating for: 

1. Sturdy Funding for Profitable Conservation Packages, together with 

These packages ship confirmed outcomes for habitat, erosion management, and rural economies. 

2. Strengthen the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) by: 

3. Improve Conservation Throughout Fields, Forests & Rangelands by way of laws like:  

Elevated Technical Service Supplier Entry Act (H.R. 575): Expands entry to knowledgeable help. 

A unified imaginative and prescient for birds and rural communities 

The facility of the fly-in wasn’t simply the information; it was within the individuals. From Daniel Sinton of Avenales Ranch in California, to Melissa Larsen of Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed in Minnesota, to Jason Fairhead of Fairhead Ranch and Primal Plains in Nebraska, these farmers and ranchers made it clear: Farm Invoice conservation isn’t only for farmers or the birds. Via meals, habitat, water, wildlife, or lifestyle, grass-based agriculture connects us all.